Nex Mucro
by Loony Dagda
Summary: Post GOF! The Summer after Voldemort returns, Harry begins to learn that there is more to the war than good and evil. Dumbledore may not be the man he'd always thought he was, and an even greater threat rears its head. Dark Harry


So, I'm sorry this came out later than I said it would, but I actually have a halfway decent excuse. I don't have Internet at my apartment. Even now, I'm at an Internet cafe doing the last bits of touching up on this and other chapters. Unfortunately, due to my lack of Internet, I can't guarantee timely updates. I will update when I can, that's all I can promise.

So, hope you like the changes I've made, I decided to change how I was writing Voldemort a bit. I think I was writing him to ooc last time. Did I do better this time around?

Disclaimer: No. no...no...aaaannndddd...no.

Chapter 1

Surprise!

You're Not Dead!

Harry woke as a cool breeze brushed against his cheek. Did he leave the window open? If Uncle Vernon found out he'd never hear the end of it. He moved to get up, or tried to at least. That was when he noticed the ropes and the cold slab of stone behind his back.

_The Triwizard tournament. Reaching for the cup and being taken to a graveyard. A flash of green light and Cedric falling to the ground, eyes lifelessly staring up at him, accusing him._ A soft whimper escaped his lips as the memories came rushing at him.

"How nice of you to join us, Harry." Came a very familiar ice cold voice. His head jerked up to meet the glowing red eyes of Tom Marvolo Riddle, also known as Voldemort.

_Wormtail stabbing his arm and putting his blood into a cauldron. The horrific baby like Voldemort being tossed into the cauldron as well. The newly reborn Lord Voldemort rising out of the cauldron in all his glory._

That was when he had finally fainted...

A smirk spread across Voldemort's thin lips. "I was beginning to worry that you might never wake up." A sudden desire to lunge at the red eyed man surged through him. Here he was tied to a gravestone, completely defenseless, with Voldemort mocking him while he was surrounded by death eaters.

Speaking of which, Harry did a quick headcount of the black robed, white masked figures. Twenty death eaters, that wasn't as many as he had expected. He didn't remember them arriving, so it must have happened after he had fainted. Storing this information away he turned his attention back to the man in front of him, he was the main threat after all.

"I'm sure you were. After all, if I died you'd never get the chance to torture and kill me yourself, right?" Crimson eyes flashed with anger. Harry tensed, expecting any moment some form or reprisal, but it never happened.

Confusion replaced the sense of anticipation in him as he glanced up at the Dark Lord. He had expected anger, rage at his back talk. Certainly Voldemort wouldn't put up with his fourteen year old wit. However, the Dark Lord seemed to have a stronger control of himself than Harry had expected. He wasn't sure whether or not that was a good thing though. On the one hand this seemed to mean Voldemort wouldn't be as quick to go curse happy. On the other hand, a Voldemort with self control might be more dangerous than a purely crazy one. With self control comes the ability to think and plan things that actually work out after all.

"Master, Severus has informed me that Potter's disappearance has been discovered." One of the death eaters said, stepping out of the group and kneeling before the wraith like figure. A wisp of platinum blond hair fell from behind his mask before the death eater quickly brushed it back in a very familiar motion. That combined with the voice was all Harry needed.

"Malfoy!" he hissed. Malfoy senior turned his masked face towards him. Harry could easily picture the sneer on the man's face.

"Hello Potter, Draco sends his greetings." Harry was surprised by the lack of smugness or hate in the elder Malfoy's voice. He clamped his mouth shut and hid the shock behind a mask of his own making, unknowingly earning an amused look from Voldemort.

"Thank you Lucius, tell Severus that I will return the boy soon enough." If they were talking about Snape, did that mean he was here? If that was the case why wasn't the potions master trying to rescue him? Was he really the traitor everyone had always thought him to be? "No, Harry, Severus is not here. Lucius is able to communicate with him telepathically." Voldemort said to him.

_'Get out of my head!' _The corners of Voldemort's lips twitched slightly.

_'You might wish to work on your mental barriers then. It's quite the task, ignoring your thoughts when they are being thrown at me.' _Harry didn't respond, taking deep breaths as he forced himself to calm down. Even if Snape wasn't there, it still seemed that he was working for Voldemort. Or maybe he was still playing the whole spy game like he had told Harry earlier in the year.

"I'm afraid our time together is coming to an end." Harry tensed unconsciously as the Dark Lord drew closer. His scar twitching, though not in pain to his surprise. This had to be it, Voldemort was finally going to end it. Would he die this time? Did his mother's love still protect him? Voldemort lifted his wand and pointed it at Harry's chest.

"What, decided to just get it over with and kill me instead of gloating first? It's about time an evil maniac did that." Voldemort simply smirked before opening his mouth to cast the spell Harry knew would be his end.

"_Eximo_." Harry sat in shock as the ropes binding him to the tombstone fell off of him and onto the ground. Was this a trick? Was Voldemort planning on giving him some glimmer of hope before he ended it?

"Whoever said I wanted to kill you?"

"Just about every wizard I've ever met, including you!" Harry said, pulling his thoughts back together as he cautiously stood up.

"Yes, they would, wouldn't they. That was before I was reborn however. You no longer have to worry about that. Now if you would relax for a moment we can be done with this. You will be free to leave as soon as I'm finished."

Harry was more than positive that this had to be some sort of trap. Lord Voldemort, the evil crazy snake man, didn't want to kill him? Who in their right mind would believe that. But, if Voldemort was going to kill him, wouldn't he have done it already? Harry glanced at the death eaters surrounding them. They didn't seem surprised by this revelation, not that he could tell really, with all of them wearing masks. Well, if Voldemort wasn't going to kill him, would it be such a bad thing to see what he wanted? It was better than dying after all, and it would, at the very least, buy him some time

"Fine, get it over with." Harry said, trying to sound more confident than he actually felt. as he stretched his arms and leaned against the tombstone.

An unfamiliar emotion flashed through Voldemort's eyes as he seemed to relax visibly, along with the other death eaters. That was certainly strange. What did they have to worry about? Their master's wrath maybe, but that didn't explain Voldemort. Maybe what ever he was going to say would clear things up. Voldemort cleared his throat and sat casually on a nearby tombstone before he began.

"First I would ask a question of you. Would you trust Dumbledore with your life?"

Harry opened his mouth to respond with the obvious 'yes', but something made him pause. Would he, if it came down to it, trust Dumbledore with his life? Had the elderly Headmaster earned such trust? Surely, the man had no trouble coming in at the last minute to save him, as he did at the end of Harry's first year, but that whole matter never should have happened. Hogwarts was supposed to be safe, especially with Albus Dumbledore as Headmaster, and yet, year after year, hadn't events proven that Dumbledore was incapable or unwilling to take the measures necessary in order to protect a simple school?

Across from him, the thin lipped mouth twisted into a smirk at his hesitation. "Not sure, Harry? Well, that's perfectly reasonable. On the one hand this is Albus Dumbledore we are speaking of. Champion of all that is good, defeater of dark wizards, benevolent and wise. On the other hand he has yet to show you, personally, if he can protect you. Can you really put your trust in a man who has yet to earn it, simply by merit of his name?"

"Fine. So I don't have absolute proof, that doesn't mean I can't trust him."

"No, no. Certainly not. But I have to wonder, what has your beloved headmaster done for you to earn your trust?"

Harry racked his brain, searching for even one example to throw back in Voldemort's face. He didn't like allowing Voldemort so much satisfaction. First year? He had Hagrid come to fetch him after Harry had failed to receive any of his Hogwarts letters. Then again, he certainly had taken his time with that. How many unanswered letters were too many? Harry must have received a few hundred by the end of it all.

He had saved him from Voldemort at the end of the year, even if his timing was a bit off. However, he had also allowed Voldemort to roam the school for almost an entire school year while sticking out of the back of the Defense teachers head. Surely Dumbledore should have noticed that.

How about second year? Hm, that certainly wasn't a good year. Not only had Dumbledore failed to notice that one of his students was waltzing the corridors with an extremely dark object containing the soul of Voldemort, he'd also failed to to anything about the minor basilisk problem, instead leaving it to the highly 'qualified' hands of Lockhart and two second years. He hadn't even defended Harry against the constant slander when everyone believed him to be the heir of Slytherin.

He didn't really need to bother with third year, or fourth year for that matter, considering where he was at the moment as proof of Dumbledore's ineptitude. Well, it looked like he had his answer.

"No, I wouldn't trust Dumbledore with my life. But he's still a good person. What are you trying to prove?"

Voldemort grinned, a truly frightening thing when you stopped to consider what else might bring that grin out. "All in due time Harry. For now I am simply pleased that you are willing to admit to such a truth."

"My Lord, Dumbledore is making preparations to track Potter down." Voldemort frowned at Malfoy's kneeling form before turning back to Harry.

"Unfortunately it would seem we are out of time. Use the cup to return to Hogwarts before the fool does anything else," The shock that Harry was already feeling only amplified. He hadn't really expected Voldemort to just let him go, "don't forget to take Diggory with you." His heart clenched. He had completely forgotten about Cedric. How was he going to tell everyone what happened?

"He's not dead," Voldemort answered dismissively, "merely in a near death state, though if you leave him like that any longer it may become permanent." Harry stared at Voldemort in confusion. That didn't make any sense. He had seen Cedric get hit with the Avada Kedavra. As far as he knew, no one else had ever survived the killing curse, hence the name.

Who cared how Cedric was alive, he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He went over to Cedric's fallen form, half expecting a curse in the back that never came, and checked for a pulse.

A heavy weight lifted off of his shoulders as he felt one, faint but still there. Harry grabbed Cedric's limp form and reached for the cup. As his hand tightened around the handle of the cup, he whipped his head back towards Voldemort, before the familiar pull at his navel took him back to Hogwarts.

Harry landed with a loud thump on the grass covered ground outside of the maze, Cedric still clutched in his arms. As the amassed group of wizards and witches swarmed him and Cedric, who was quickly taken to the hospital wing, Voldemort's last words rung in his head repeatedly, like a broken record.

"See you over the Summer, Harry."

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Kirril

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